WEBVTT - #710 Packers Unscripted: More early impressions 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:11.200 Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.440 Packers dot com. I am like Spofford, he is my 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.040 trusted colleague Weston Hodkoitz. We're coming to you from different 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.040 locations here at lambeau Field and Wes. It's been such 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.040 a crazy offseason. I can't even get in the studio now, 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:28.240 so I'm up on the fifth floor. I think just 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:30.680 down the hall. You're down that way, maybe that way. 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.080 I'm not sure exactly where you are, but anyway, we 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:40.920 are here to resume the podcast and latest unscripted episode. 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:45.680 And since our last episode, you were able to cover 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.320 a press conference that was related to the Packers hosting 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.519 the draft in twenty twenty five, so I wanted to 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:57.320 follow up on that and find out what exactly you learned, 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.240 because the biggest thing that I from it is that 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.880 the NFL is going to come into Green Bay here 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.200 at some point and figure out how to run this 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.160 whole show. But a lot of the details still very 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:12.720 much up in the air as to exactly how this 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:13.520 is going to work. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.880 Yeah, boss, I mean that was probably my I learned 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:19.280 so much, especially our VP of Marketing and fan Engagement, 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.360 Gabrielle DOAO. It was very enlightening in terms of kind 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:23.960 of pulling back some of the layers of the onion 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.080 and understanding not only what's involved with the packers making 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.880 the pitch, but what it means once the NFL actually 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.319 accepts the bid. And one of the big things that 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.480 I think is, but I've been driving home with our 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.960 Insider inbox column, is the green Bay Packers City of 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.200 green Bay are providing the canvas. This is now whatever 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.160 the NFL wants to paint on it. We know that 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.800 there's going to be the Lambefield campus involved. That is 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.920 the resh Center, to our east, the Rush Expo, the 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.360 ninety three million dollar project here that has brought a 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.640 lot of new commerce into the area, Lambefield itself, and 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.960 then to our west, title Town. Those four areas are 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.000 going to be where you're going to see the media stages, 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:05.760 the red carpets, the media rooms, everything related to probably 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:07.559 the publicity of the event. 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.840 The draft stage is completely up to the NFL. They 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.640 could put it on Lambeau Field, but it's one hundred 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.200 yard stage, so it would eat up the entire field. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.240 If that's the route they went, you know, maybe they 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.280 have the rest Center available, a lot of different avenues 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.240 potentially outside, as we've seen some of these concerts recently 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.000 Train you know, these free concerts have had the stages 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.200 outside as well. But the fact is that was the 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:35.200 most impressive to me that Gabrielle mentioned was Green Bay 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.640 was really the first team since the NFL started moving 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:42.200 around the NFL Draft that it was fronted by the city, 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.920 by the team they pursued the draft. They wanted this 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.200 event to be here. Certainly for the green Bay Packers. 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:50.240 We're never going to have a Super Bowl here. You 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.440 and I both know it, at least during our lifetimes. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:54.000 So what does that mean. 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.280 That means that this is the biggest event that could 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:59.399 be in this place, and the Packers work so diligently, 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.800 so hard, you know. And last thing I'll just close 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.720 on is really quickly, the fact that Green Bay was 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.800 really positioning itself for twenty twenty seven, now twenty twenty six, 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.640 we're gonna have the Wisconsin Notre Dame game. Twenty twenty 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:14.960 seven is where they had their sites turned to. They 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.120 didn't think from what the NFL was saying, that twenty 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.120 five was going to be a possibility. January, the NFL 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.000 calls says, hey, you know, we're ready, we will you know, 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.079 we want to be in consideration for this again. The 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.600 voters approved it at the spring meetings, and here we go, Michael, 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:29.760 in twenty three months, Lambeufield will be home to the 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:30.600 NFL Draft. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.560 Yeah, and I think it's great that that the Packers 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.120 and the city of Green Bay got twenty twenty five 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.800 because later that year, in that summer, is when Mark 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.480 Murphy will reach the mandatory retirement age as the president 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:48.120 and CEO of the Packers at age seventy. So this 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:50.600 is something he worked so hard, obviously with the other 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.600 folks that you mentioned, to get the draft to Green Bay, 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.720 and now he's actually he will still be the president 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.120 and CEO of the Packers at the time that the 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.320 event is hosted, and it sort of becomes, you know, 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.920 the culmination of his long tenure here atop the Packers organization. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.040 So that'll be really exciting. The other thing I want 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.720 to point out is that for those who are interested 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:15.480 in a little bit of history, Cliff Crystal has a 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.839 story on packers dot com about the only other time 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.159 that the NFL Draft was held in the state of Wisconsin, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:25.200 and you have to go all the way back to 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.280 the nineteen forty draft. It was actually held in December 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.920 of nineteen thirty nine. It was the nineteen forty draft. 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.520 It was held at a hotel in Milwaukee the day 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:39.599 before the Packers were hosting the nineteen thirty nine NFL 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:44.720 Championship Game. And there's a lot of great details in there, obviously, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.640 the stories of the smoke filled rooms and all the 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.040 NFL owners gathered in one place, and you know the 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.560 street and Smith's yearbooks, and you know how they got 0:04:55.560 --> 0:05:00.000 all the scouting information back then and made the select 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.640 So a really really interesting historical piece on Packers dot 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.440 Com by our team history and Cliff Crystal for those 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.599 I want to check that out. And the draft was 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.680 like twenty plus rounds or something back then, obviously not 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.360 as many teams, but twenty plus rounds of selections with 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:19.479 with with all the owners smoking their cigars and everything 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.680 else through throughout a I believe it was a Saturday afternoon, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.080 So a really really interesting historical perspective on where the 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.159 draft is now compared to back then. 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.080 I had such a smile on my face. 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:33.800 You can even hear me jrying to jump over you 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.120 to talk about this when I was editing that, when 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.719 I was reading it on Thursday, because it was it 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:40.719 the way I equated it, the way I'm envisioning it 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.080 in my mind, Like Cliff did such a great job 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.479 of creating the detail of it. It reminds me of 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.120 if you ever had a fantasy football draft where you 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:54.480 rented out of a you know, a bar's, you know, ballroom. 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.240 To have it. That's basically what it was. Now. 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.720 Some of these owners, like Curly Lambell, they were entrenched 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.400 in all this. They're pick of the players. Some owners weren't. 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.840 Some owners had coaches and they're just kind of sitting 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:05.960 around trying to pass time talking to people in that 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.159 It just again, there's nothing I love more than the 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.880 wild West of the National Football League. And you kind 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.200 of forget at that point nineteen forty they'd only had 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:15.320 what five six drafts. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.160 At that point, it all was sort of this. 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.960 They didn't know whether to use, you know, like these 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.800 type of reports or newspapers or not. Some guys just 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:24.760 kind of seem like they're picking names out of a hat. 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.000 But ultimately that's kind of what set the stage for 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.320 the league that followed in the forties and fifties to come. 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.480 Yeah, that was the fifth NFL Draft. The one that 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.120 will be in Green Bay in twenty twenty five will 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:39.400 be the ninetieth NFL Draft, and something tells me it 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.240 won't be eighty five years again before the draft is 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.320 back in Green Bay, or at least we can we 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.680 can hope for that. So I do want to move 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.600 on west to our impressions of the first week of OTAs, 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.120 but I will take care of some sponsor business here. 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:57.840 Serious XM NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.320 to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.120 twenty four to seven, three sixty five and at Cousins Subs, 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.040 we have something for everyone like our Wisconsin Cheese Kurds, 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:11.119 mac and Cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:13.560 with your favorite sub or sub and a bowl Cousin 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:18.440 Subs fifty years of better. All right, Well, last week, Wes, 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:23.920 we got our first look at the Packers Ota sessions. 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.120 One per week at this stage of the off season 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.360 is open to the media, and we will have another 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.200 one this week, which we can talk about on our 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.720 next show, but I'll just toss it out to you. 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.040 Very open ended, What were your initial impressions, What caught 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:44.960 your eye the first time seeing the twenty twenty three Packers, 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.840 at least in terms of the off season roster on 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:48.720 the field together. 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.120 Christian Watson's body, I think is probably the first thing 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:54.559 that caught my eye. I mean, my goodness, the dude, 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:56.960 in his last press conference with us the Locker Room 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.600 Availed or Locker Room clean Out Day, talked about how 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.840 his big goal for the offseason was kind of building 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.440 himself up better and making sure he gets his body 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.840 prepared to handle the strength, you know, the stresses of 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:08.040 in his seventeen game season. 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.000 Obviously, you got to play the games. You have to 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:10.560 get on the field. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.200 But if you ever want to talk about a kid 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.680 that took that seriously, I mean, I don't know if 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.560 there's any body fat on him right now. I mean, 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.160 he just looks strong and lean and fast, and I thought, 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:22.800 you know, made some of the biggest plays of the 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.960 practice in that final two minute period. The offense got 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.120 off to a little bit of a slow start, but 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.800 you could I enjoyed and watching how you know, Jordan 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.480 Love sort of rallied the troops there the second half 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.040 and then and it is the red zone period is 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.360 obviously tailor to the offense to a certain extent, but 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:44.640 the confidence, the the you know, arm strength, everything. I 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.280 thought Jordan Love finished the practice on a high note. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:49.240 And that post in the back of the end zone 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.360 that he threw to Christian Watson, we didn't have a 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.480 you know, a radar gun on it, but my goodness, 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.439 that was a fastball that he threw to that kid. 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.000 And you know, by and large, it's just one practice. 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:01.600 We don't know what any of these other ones have 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.200 looked like. But I was really impressed by what I 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:05.160 saw from the young QB. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.080 Yeah, the the offense definitely got off to a slow 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.240 start in terms of the eleven on eleven work that 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.400 we were watching, but then it seemed as later in 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.720 the practice got into a red zone period and things 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:19.679 started to click a little bit, and we saw in 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:21.679 you know, in a span of about five or six 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.320 red zone snaps, we saw Christian Wattson, Romeo Dobbs, and 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:30.120 Soamori Toure all catch touchdown passes from Love toward the 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.800 end of practice. So the offense definitely finished on a 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:34.880 high note. A couple other things that stood out to me. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.280 I guess I would say the impression that we had 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.640 talked about on a previous show of seeing Lucas van 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.720 Ness in person, the first round draft pick at edge rusher, 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:48.960 that sort of carried over. I guess I would say 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.080 to OTAs where he wasn't just you know, on the 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.079 field in a rookie mini camp with a bunch of 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.040 rookies and other tryout guys, like he's out there with, 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.720 you know, with all the guys and certainly looks from 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.360 a physical standpoint like he belongs to me. You can 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.520 just see the physique and the build and the way 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:08.880 he carries himself, the way he gets off the ball 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.440 on the snap in the eleven on eleven all that 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.120 you can see why this guy was a first round 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.079 draft pick. So a long way to go. He's got 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.160 a lot to learn in terms of the defensive scheme 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.080 and what role he's going to fit best in Joe 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.840 Berry's defense. But that impression from rookie mini caamp definitely 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.480 carried over. And the other thing that caught my eye too, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.440 in terms of watching both Sean Clifford and Danny Ettling 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.240 as the backup quarterbacks running things with the second and 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.640 third units. The ball seemed to find Don Tavian Wis, 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:43.320 the fifth round rookie out of Virginia. Ball seemed to 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.679 find him on a pretty regular basis when we were 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.840 watching the eleven on eleven's with the twos and the three. 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.880 So that's something that I'm going to keep my eye 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.760 on two here moving forward. Obviously there's no pads. It's 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.160 you know, the underwear league as they call it in OTAs. 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:03.080 But certainly as far as first impressions go, that definitely 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:04.880 stood out to me as well, just in terms of 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.960 the number of times that that the ball was headed 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.480 his way and he was able to make the plays. 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.160 I totally understand because we're gonna hear it on Wednesday, 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.959 probably from Matt Leaflor too. You can't crown anybody off 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.880 of these OTA's practices. But what I always say, I 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.880 always kind of take the opposite approach to it. You 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.240 also know what it looks like when guys aren't making plays. 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:27.600 You know what it feels like when guys aren't When 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.079 you get through a practice and you're like, oh, I 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.920 didn't hear so and so's name the entire time Tay 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.000 Wicks was in that entire practice, I thought made his 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.520 presence felt. And I'll always mention this, Michael. It is 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.640 about consistency. It's about stacking every single day. But what 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.760 did we say all off season about Romeo Dobbs last year? 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:47.960 And he kept doing it? And then it's like, okay, 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:49.880 well he was doing it once a week during OTA's 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:51.960 with no pads, how's it going to look in training camp? 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.040 And then it's kept happening during training camp and it 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.320 started happening in the preseason games. Next thing you know, 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.600 he's the Week three NFL Offensive Player of the Week. 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.880 That stuff come pounds because it's not just about okay, 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.800 he's getting confidence. No, it's telling you something about this player. 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.000 When you put that stuff on film, that's what we know, Mike. 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.480 You and I can pontificate and guess all of this 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.360 stuff and where guys are gonna go, But until you 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.400 actually see it, that's where you first can really start 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.800 to believe it. And I just I was really impressed 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:20.960 by the young man because coming out of Virginia, what 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.520 an interesting story. Your story's up right now on packers 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.920 dot Com. A really enlightening look into his path and 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:28.600 how he got to Virginia and what he made out 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.160 of the opportunity. The young man just graduated college, which 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:33.800 he joked about in the locker room last week that 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.280 his mom was probably more excited about getting that degree 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.600 than she was actually him getting drafted. But the way 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:41.880 he carries himself in the approach he took during a 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.240 very trying senior year, this is a new chapter for 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.199 him now. And as you know, one of the things 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.080 I put in Insider inbox when you get these young 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.959 guys that aren't first round picks, that are Day three picks, 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.440 maybe had one season where they kind of lit things up, 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.320 but then maybe didn't finish the way they wanted to. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:12:59.960 It's not about how you got here in the build. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.360 It's what you do now that you are here in 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:04.600 the third round picks, the fifth round picks that have 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.400 succeeded on Marquez Valdez, Scantling and Aaron Jones, That's what 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.680 they did. It didn't matter once they were here where 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:12.640 they were drafted. It mattered what they were able to 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:14.640 accomplish when they were finally in this offense. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:15.480 And it's wide open. 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.880 Yeah, And Wix is intriguing to me too. And we 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.640 just posted a story that I had written on him, 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.560 mostly off of an interview during the rookie Mini camp 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.920 just about not saying that there's been a boatload of 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.440 adversity that this young man necessarily has overcome. But you 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.800 mentioned obviously a very trying final season at Virginia and 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.160 there's a coaching change and a system change, and things 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:42.920 didn't go all that well after a really really big 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.120 season in twenty twenty one, will you rewind the clock 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.000 a little bit further. This is a young man from 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:54.640 Louisiana who wanted to play Power five Conference NCAA football, 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.679 and within two weeks before signing day as a senior 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:01.120 in high school, he didn't have a five offer. He 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.360 was most likely going to be staying at home at 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.560 Louisiana Lafayette, staying in state. He did have a Division 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.080 one offer, and that was looking like where he was headed. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:17.720 Suddenly Virginia swoops in at the last minute, and within 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:19.880 a span of like a week to ten days, he 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.720 went from you know, staying in state at a smaller 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.240 school in Division one to suddenly getting an offer and 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.440 making his commitment to Virginia to play in the ACC 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:32.920 And then obviously a few years later he becomes a 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.040 fifth round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers. So 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.040 this is a young man that you just you can't 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.760 count him out right, I mean, he's he's been up 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.000 against it before. And as you said, it's a wide 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.960 open position group in terms of the depth chart for 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.040 the Packers heading into twenty twenty three. Also, with regard 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.360 to the depth chart, I don't want to get too 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.640 far into the weeds here because there were some veterans 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.320 who were not at the practice that we witness last week. 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:05.400 OTAs are voluntary, not mandatory, except pretty stretch except for 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.760 what we'll be there when, when required. But the one 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.320 thing on the depth chart that that did sort of 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.960 follow our projections when we were previewing OTAs is that 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.600 Rudy Ford was with the number one defense at safety 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:23.960 alongside Darnell Savage. At least that is where things are starting. 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:24.280 Now. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.360 We know that with with Jonathan Owens and in his 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:32.520 gains and and the draft pick Anthony Johnson Junior, all 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.280 sorts of different possibilities as far as how things could 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:40.120 go at safety. But in chatting with Darnell Savage afterward, 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.960 you know, he obviously went through a lot of ups 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:48.080 and downs last season in twenty twenty two, and you know, 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.000 it's not just to say that that he's that he 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.920 you know, is ready to put twenty twenty two behind him. 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.360 He genuinely, in speaking with the media, just kept talking 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.720 about how excited he is for twenty twenty three. He's 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.360 looking at you know, he's looked at the film. He's 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.600 learned a lot, but he's also just looking forward to 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.040 the clean slate and the fresh start and and what 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.760 a new season can bring for a veteran player whose 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.960 previous season did not go the way he wanted it 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.960 to and did not measure up to previous seasons that 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.240 we've seen from Darnell Savage in this Green Bay Packers defense. 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.640 So just just seeing, you know, you don't always see 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.880 a fifth year guy who's you know, at voluntary OTAs 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.280 he doesn't have to be here. But he's genuinely, you know, 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.440 fired up and excited about what lies ahead for him. 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.360 And I think I think that attitude is something that 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.640 he wants to see permeate throughout the rest of the 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:48.080 defense as he is now really the elder statesman at 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.560 safety with with Adrian Amos not being re signed as 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:52.080 a free. 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.280 Agent, and Darnell Savage isn't gonna say this, but I'll 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.040 be happily say it. I mean, when you talk about 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:57.960 a young man that's on the fifth year option, a 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.080 guaranteed contract for the season, there aren't these huge workout 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:04.080 bonuses factored into that like there are other unrestricted free 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.639 agent contract offers. He is here to get better, and 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:08.399 I think he's here to send a message to everybody 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:10.800 with the Packers that I am still the first round 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:12.560 pick you thought I was four years ago, and I 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.119 can be the face of this back end. You know, 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.200 he made such a great, you know, one to two 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:19.880 combo with Adrian Namas. Had felt like their styles really 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.639 did compliment each other very well. But when the Packers 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.280 drafted him in twenty nineteen, the first defensive back off 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.520 the board that year, it was so that he could 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.000 eventually someday beat the franchise. You know, safety back there 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.560 the guy that'll be the face of this thing, and 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.040 now he's in that position to do so. Mike, I 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.160 don't know how the safety competition is going to work out. 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:39.960 I don't know who's going to prevail if Rudy Ford 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.679 holds off the pack But what I will say, you know, 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.760 I go back to twenty thirteen I talk about this 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:47.360 a lot, and that was where you had the big 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.320 switch after that season. That's where they drafted Hock Clinton Dix. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.720 That's where they moved over Micah Hyde. But one of 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:54.560 the reasons for that it wasn't we put so much 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.080 of this on well m d. Jennings or Jeron McMillan. 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.359 Now I go back to that training camp, Mike. We 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.600 got to the final week of camp and I didn't 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:03.440 know whether or not there would be a fourth safety 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.000 on the roster. They just didn't have the depth, they 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.399 didn't have the numbers, and ultimately Chris Banjo end up 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.560 being that fourth guy, who was a month earlier signed 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:13.760 as a rookie free agent. 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:15.400 I love the. 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.080 Fact that they cast the net that they did to 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:20.960 find a player. You know, you look at Michael, you 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:25.720 have Rudy Ford, experience, started games for this defense last year. 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.560 Then you look at it, Okay, what's going on over here, 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.920 Well you have you know, Tarvarius Moore coming in, former 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.280 third round pick, had some injury issues, but looking to 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.320 come back also gives you some special teams flexibility. Dalan 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.200 Levitt a guy that's been there, done that. Jonathan Owens 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.879 started seventeen games last year, had one hundred and twenty 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.480 five tackles in nine hundred and eighty snaps. And then 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:48.680 the guy that I think very few people have talked 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:52.240 about is ns Gains. Where Mike, if you know nothing 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.000 about pro football, if you know nothing about the players 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:56.879 and how they line up on this roster, and you 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.880 just look at Ennis Gains, the guy looks like an 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.520 NFL safety six foot two, two hundred pounds. Can thud 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:05.680 I mean they call him thump for a reason. 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.920 Right, Yeah, any great name by the way. 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:09.480 Great nickname. 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:11.960 But I think if you notice what happened when he 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.280 got that second injury with the hamstring, he got you know, 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.600 the injury designation, and then he came back, he looked 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:19.159 like a different guy to me. He looked healthy, he 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:20.760 looked confident, and by the end of last year, I 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:22.520 think he was running with the number one you know, 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:26.040 gunners and jammers on the punt team. So it is 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.200 a lot of options for them back there. I don't 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.520 know who's going to prevail, but I like the fact 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.200 that they at least gave themselves a multiplicity of things 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.640 that they could potentially look towards. Also with the fact 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:38.520